Internet safety

I had to tackle the the issue of internet safety the other day.  I thought I was quite good at this one, after all I have an email address, a facebook account, twitter and instagram,  I write a blog, do online shopping and can generally utilise social networks quite efficiently.

Bubble came home and informed me that on the parents area of the school website there is something about internet safety that I should have a look at.  At the time I was multi-tasking to the nth degree.  Supervising one lot of homework in one room about the River Ganges, another lot at the kitchen table about acids and alkalis, You-tubing songs with the words River in it for Squeaks project, making tea, and feeding the dog. I did not feel up to doing anything else involving school.  The conversation went something like this:

40something:  "Internet safety - ok mate, have you got a Facebook account?"
Bubble:  "You know I haven't mumsy -  I can't stand it"
40something: "Twitter? or Instagram?"
Bubble:  "No ......and you only have instagram cos Squeak nagged and nagged to have an account cos she wants to see what 1D are doing and YOU wanted to keep an eye on what she was doing."
40something:  "Ok - on your Playstation, do you interact and talk to people you don't know?"
Bubble: "NO!"
40something: "Have you watched any naughty things on youtube?"
Bubble: "NO - and anyway you can't watch naughty things on youtube they remove them!  You have to access other sites for that!"
40something:  "Ok what about stuff with extreme violence?"
Bubble:  "Well considering you and I watched the whole series of Lost and Van Helsing over the last few weeks that's a bit debatable!"
40something:  "Fair point - it's just studies show that kids who have prolonged access to violent video games become desensitised so we need to watch out for that."

Bubble then informs me that he knows violence is a bad thing, I tell him enough times and I am probably bonkers for having this conversation with him in the first place.  I point out not unreasonably that it was him who brought the subject up in the first place!

Later on that evening, I decided to keep my son company at the kitchen table while he completed yet another piece of work.  Trawling through my phone I decided to access my Instagram account, which I take no notice of, rarely use and only bother with to keep a check on my daughters account.  I discovered I have loads of new followers!  They are all school kids!  I did not know about this - but I do now! It was a bit embarrassing to ask my son who all these people were, all of whom he knew and I did not!

I huffed and puffed a bit about kids and technology today, then it got better!  I checked my Twitter account......

I had all sorts of  people following me from all over the world and apparently I am following loads of people as well!  Clicking on some of the profiles I was flabbergasted - why on earth would I be interested in following some guy who lives thousands of miles away and whose sole purpose in life is to spread the word about Jesus through the world wide web!  I then have apoplexy over some random bloke from Korea whose pictures have all sorts of naughty ladies on it!

Jeepers - I chose the name for my blog site and twitter page as 40somethingbitch not because I am particularly bitchy, or because I wanted to be controversial but because it describes me.  I am 40 something, and I do occasionally want to moan about the world. A quick google search reveals however an awful lot of "40something" sites have lewd and licentious content!

Bubble has helpfully pointed out that the internet safety video is still available on the school website if I need any help!

Thanks for reading